1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of storage devices used for the storage of data encrypted utilizing a one-time pad (“OTP”) encryption scheme.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a system where bulk storage of sensitive data occurs, stored data can be protected prior to being stored by using one or more encryption techniques. Storage of encrypted data may require additional computational resources and may cause throughput constraints due to the speed of encryption operations. In a system that is constrained to size, weight, and power, computational resources running at a high speed may exceed size, weight, and power maximums. In other systems, data that should be stored as protected may be stored unprotected.
In a system of mass storage, manufacturers or producers of mass storage devices may initialize the state of the storage device with 0's or 1's prior to data being initially written onto the device. Rather than leave the storage device in such state, it may be loaded with an OTP. According to Mr. Bruce Schneier in his book “Applied Cryptography,” an OTP is considered a perfect encryption scheme. “Classically, a one-time pad is nothing more than a large nonrepeating set of truly random key letters, written on sheets of paper, and glued together in a pad. In its original form, it was a one-time tape for teletypewriters. The sender uses each key letter on the paper. Encryption is the addition modulo 26 of the plaintext character and the one-time pad key character.”
“Each key letter is used exactly once, for only one message. The sender encrypts the message and then destroys the used pages of the pad or used section of the tape. The receiver has an identical pad and uses each key on the pad, in turn, to decrypt each letter of the ciphertext. The receiver destroys the same pad pages or tape section after decrypting the message. New message—new key letters . . . . Since every plaintext message is equally possible, there is no way for the cryptanalyst to determine which plaintext message produces a completely random ciphertext message and no amount of computing power can change that.”
The power of the OTP encryption scheme may be employed for data provided from a data source such as image data representative of a visual scene captured by a video camera. By analogy, image data may be treated as the message subjected to a OTP encrypted scheme, where the OTP comprises key characters.